Shush 2.0

I’ve been a member of both MySpace and Facebook for a while now. I haven’t updated my MySpace page for months, but I use my Facebook page daily to keep up with friends. I’ve joined several library themed groups over the last few months but I haven’t really heard much from any of them, short of an invite to ALA in CA and National Library week in DC, neither of which are anywhere near me geographically. As a student in the St. Kate’s MLIS program, I joined their Facebook group, but I never get any info from them either. As far as I know, I don’t have any of the group notifications turned off. The grad students at the department where I work have adopted me and added me to their Facebook group. I get invites to their coffee hour and presentations 1-2 times per week and have watched them use Facebook and a blog to help their community grow. So, what I’ve taken away from my social networking experience so far is that it’s a great way to keep in touch with your friends, but if you want to use it to foster a community of like-minded people, you need to actively encourage it to grow.